Chicago Pen Show 2024 Recap
It is amazing what driving 500 miles will do for the weather. I left the north shore of Minnesota to rainy 40F and arrived at the Chicago Pen Show to an 80F with full sun. It was pretty wild (and it’s a good thing I checked the weather otherwise I would have been quite toasty at the show!). I’d packed sparingly, only bringing a few things for my Saturday workshops, my Art Sports with nibs to be ground, my Liliputs, and my new Kaweco x Galen Leather Carmine that I’d swapped my 14K BB ‘journaler’ nib into and filled with Diamine Rainbows End.
There were actually flowers on trees the further south I went!
I arrived a little later on Thursday than I planned, so I didn’t attempt to mingle until the pizza party. I met some new folks and had a great time chatting. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve, just waiting to see what the show had in store. It seemed like the pizza party was a little quieter than last year. I didn’t see nearly as many folks that I’d met previously.
Friday morning dawned and since I had the weekend pass I was able to start walking around at 9. Many vendors were still setting up, so I mostly used the first few hours to get the lay of the land and get a gist of what people had brought. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular and didn’t have any plans for new pens, so I wasn’t in a rush to see some of the maker pen offerings. However, the quiet morning did give me a chance to visit with Master Penman Michael Sull. His book on cursive handwriting was on my ‘to-buy’ list. He is such a nice person and we chatted while he crafted my name in turn of the century flare, complete with a little flourished bird. I ended up with two books from him, his cursive handwriting workbook and his new advanced penmanship book. We chatted quite a bit about passing down handwriting skills to future generations, something that I’ve become very interested in lately.
The main show hall on Friday morning, there were also more tables set up in the atrium outside.
From there I bounced around a bit after taking my new books up to my room (one of the perks of having a room at the hotel is heavy stuff can be dropped off easily). I stopped by Skogsy Pens and gushed over some of their cute Baby Saguaro models. I have such a soft spot for minis. They also recognized me from here… so hello again if you’re reading this! I also spent some time chatting with Good Made Better since I was debating on taking the plunge on a Writewell. I didn’t buy one until Saturday, but I also got to see his new pens that he built. They were really neat! I really liked the mix of the ebonite and metal. During my laps I also stopped by Inky Converters table and picked up a new lanyard for work, the eclipse sticker, and the fountain pen socks! Rounding out the non-ink related purchases I also picked up some beautiful stickers from Stationery Universe and a card from Roses Without Thorns for Mothers’ Day.
Now, for the ink.
At the end of day one of the show I had five new inks. Three of them were planned ahead of time and two were ones I planned to buy eventually and just took the plunge. The first ink of the day was the show ink from Anderillium, Diversey Harbor. It’s a beautiful deep blue with red sheen. I’ve got it inked up now in my Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye and it just looks great scrawling across my various notebooks. I also picked up a bottle of Papier Plume’s Cafe Diabolique. I had been kicking myself for not picking it up last year and it was sold out online for a while. It’s a deep brown-black with black sheen and while I haven’t inked it up yet, I am looking forward to it. I did pick up Franklin-Christoph’s new ink, Bronze Age. I am loving it. It’s such an interesting shade of brown and it looks nice with the other browns in my collection. Those were the planned inks. The two wild cards were Anderillium Adonis Butterfly Blue and Van Dieman’s Greek Heroes Achilles. They were both on my ink wishlist and I decided to snag them while I was there. Van Dieman’s Achilles is gorgeous! The shimmer is actually incredibly well-behaved as well. I didn’t have any white lightning with me at the show and it hasn’t clogged at all.
First ink I purchased and the first to be swatched.
My final spend for the day was getting two nibs ground by Kirk Speer (Pen Realm). I hadn’t worked with him before and it was a great experience! I finally got my 14K BB CSI fixed. It had a super narrow writing surface and I never really used it. I also got one of my steel broad nibs ground to an imperial, which is essentially a stub nib with more of the rounding kept. It also has a very smooth reverse side that gives me a marker-like line. I inked them up with Van Dieman’s Achilles and Franklin Christoph Bronze Age respectively before heading down to hang out for Friday night Pen Show After Dark. It was a lot of fun to reconnect with some folks I met last year and meet some new pen friends.
Best thing about hanging out with pen people? Getting to play with all of the different pens and inks!
Saturday was a busy day. I had volunteered to host two free workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I had so much fun at free workshops last year that I decided to pay it forward. I planned my workshop around giving folks new ideas (or revisiting old ones) to get themselves journaling for the first time or getting started again. We even did some journaling during the class. Around forty people attended both workshops and I was so humbled to chat and present to everyone. Thank you to everyone who came! This is the day I also ran into a lot of folks who have engaged with this blog and my Instagram. Hello again to all of you! It was lovely to meet you in person. Of course, I was so busy teaching that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the class!
I had done most of my intended shopping on Friday, so I was mostly just browsing and looking for unexpected things. I did find a bottle of Laban Poseidon at Federalist Pens, which is an ink that is stuck in my head. I also decided to pick up a Writewell after sleeping on it. It is such a beautiful tool and I am excited to put it through its paces. Upon arriving home I sat and did some reflective and 5-year journaling catchup with it on my couch. I can see myself enjoying it for years and years to come. The model that I picked up has a niche at the top, two penwells on the right side, and the adjustable rollstop that can be put up or dropped out of the way. I also stopped by Amarillo Stationery and came home with a sheet of stickers and pen rest for my work desk. After dinner I decided to take a small nap… which turned into a big nap, but I didn’t miss all of Saturday Pen Show After Dark. I got to play with some amazing flex nibs that folks picked up from Stylosuite.
Writewell in its new habitat of my living room.
I didn’t end up sleeping in on Sunday so that I could attend JC’s (Nib Tailor’s) nib tuning workshop. It was great to get another perspective on tuning and I plan on putting it to use where I can. It was great to spend time with some fun folks in the community at the workshop, including Mikayla of White Bear Pens!
To wrap up my show I decided on a bottle of Wearingeul Atlas, a store exclusive from Atlas Stationers which is a soft blue with blue shimmer (If you ever want to pick something up from there, use my code DIME10 to take 10% off!). I blame @lord_hibachi for this one since I was playing with one of his pens inked up with it. From Atlas I also picked up some washi tape and another plotter mini 5 pad (I like keeping loose sheets in a pocket of my TN for quick notes).
Very happy with the inks I brought home this year!
Overall, I had a great time and I am really looking forward to next year! Who knows, maybe I’ll take a stab at teaching some workshops again.
P.S. On the way back I stopped at House on the Rock in Spring Green, WI for the first time. That museum is wild! If you haven’t heard of it or been there, definitely check it out. I spent nearly 5 hours there and my jaw just kept dropping! It’s only about 2.5 hours from the show.
This is the giant carousel room. I was really grateful to be there during the off season because only being around a few other people made the experience even more mysterious.
Currently Inked
Diamine Rainbows End - Kaweco x Galen Leather Carmine 14K BB ‘journaler’ - I was in a wild ink mood so I decided on this purple with pink shimmer for headers in May. I decided to mix it up from my usual 1.5 stub as well. It’s working really well and this pen is making me smile every time that I pick it up. This ink might be one of my favorites from last year’s Inkvent calendar.
Anderillium Diversey Harbor (2024 Chicago Pen Show Exclusive) - Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye 14K M ‘journaler’ - Yep, I finally swapped that nib out of my fireblue (at least for a bit). This blue isn’t super unique, but it’s a great dark blue and I’m glad to have such a useful color from a pen show ink. Anderillium inks have been growing on me over the last year and I’m glad to have this one in my collection.
Anderillium Luna Moth Green - Kaweco Art Sport Terrazzo 14K M ‘selvedge’ - Another nib swap from my copper liliput to my Art Sport to mix things up. This is one of those green inks that has grown on me. I don’t know what it is about this particular shading ink, but I’m hooked at the moment.
Van Dieman’s Greek Heroes Achilles - Kaweco Liliput copper 14K BB CSI - This ink is added to my list of “inks that look serious from far away, but are so fun up close”. It was one of those “I want it for the theming”, but I stayed for the ink. This ink is a very dark purple with a green sheen and a gold shimmer. The shimmer is extremely fine which causes it to spread out more on the letters rather than pooling in the wetter spots like many shimmer inks. A really delightful ink to play with.
Franklin-Christoph Bronze Age - Kaweco Liliput fireblue B ‘imperial’ - I am having a lot of fun with this grind and ink combination. FC describes this ink as a green-gold, and I see it as kind of a yellow-leaning brown. It flows really well and it’s a really unique color. I can see myself using this one a lot in the fall.